When Fawas Adeosun’s mother Fatimoh couldn’t afford to pay his school fees, he was frequently sent home from school through Lagos’s filthy streets. That is, until he enrolled in a new school that provided a novel solution.
The Adeosuns send their children to one of Nigeria’s commercial capital’s forty low-cost schools that accept recyclable waste as payment. My Dream Stead is a school located in the sprawling, impoverished Ajegunle neighborhood.
For the past four years, African Cleanup Initiative, a local environmental organization, has sold recyclables brought to school by students and their families.
The sales cover teachers’ salaries, students’ uniform costs, and classroom supplies such as books and pencils.
The scheme, according to the group’s founder, Alexander Akhigbe, aims to reduce both the number of children who are not in school and the amount of trash found on Lagos’ streets.
My Dream Stead charges $130 per year in tuition to its 120 students and is expanding into a second apartment building. When it first opened in 2019, only seven children signed up.
Fatimoh and Fawas frequently carry heavy trash bags to school with them in the mornings. On-site trash weighing and crediting of proceeds to Fawas’ account.
Fatimoh, a 48-year-old hairdresser, is the sole caretaker for her six children. “Sometimes, if he wants to buy sportswear, the school will tell me the amount I need to bring,” she explained.
It has been especially difficult for her to provide for Fawas, the youngest, since she was evicted from the salon room she used in 2018.
“When I discovered that they could collect the plastics from me in order to keep my child in school, it made my burden lighter,” she said as she searched recycling bins on the streets on her way back from school.
